Holden physician 'a doctor's doc and a patient's doc'

Thursday

Sep 4, 2014 at 6:00 AMSep 4, 2014 at 1:52 PM

From the time he was a young boy, Richard A. Sacra wanted to be a missionary doctor. The 51-year-old, who was developing a medical residency program in Liberia, was described by family and colleagues Wednesday as a devout Christian dedicated to serving others at home and abroad. Dr. Sacra, a Family Health Center of Worcester family physician, was working with a missionary group when he contracted the Ebola infection.

By Susan Spencer and Craig S. Semon TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

From the time he was a young boy, Richard A. Sacra wanted to be a missionary doctor.

The 51-year-old, who was developing a medical residency program in Liberia, was described by family and colleagues Wednesday as a devout Christian dedicated to serving others at home and abroad.

Dr. Sacra, a Family Health Center of Worcester family physician, was working with a missionary group when he contracted the Ebola infection. He is the third American to be infected while working in Liberia.

He graduated in 1989 from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and holds a faculty appointment at the medical school as an assistant professor of Family Medicine & Community Health.

Douglas Sacra of Wayland, Dr. Sacra's older brother, said in a phone interview Wednesday, “He knew since he was about 10 that he wanted to be a missionary doctor.”

Dr. Sacra had been in Liberia periodically since 1995. His three children grew up there, according to Mr. Sacra. Whenever his brother was home from his missionary work, he worked with the Family Health Center of Worcester, Mr. Sacra said.

“He's always been a dedicated guy,” he said.

In an interview Wednesday at Family Health Center's Queen Street health center, Dr. Gregory A. Culley, chief medical officer and Dr. Sacra's supervisor when he was working stateside, said that Dr. Sacra indicated in his latest email last week that the equipment to protect health care staff from the deadly virus had just arrived.

Dr. Sacra had left Worcester for Liberia in early August, pushing up his original late-August departure because of the exploding Ebola crisis, Dr. Culley said.

He was delivering babies at a hospital established by the Charlotte, N.C.-based Serving in Mission missionary group, and was developing a family medicine residency program there.

Bruce Johnson, president of SIM missionary group, said at a press conference Wednesday that Dr. Sacra is receiving treatment in Liberia. It is not known if Dr. Sacra will return to the U.S. for treatment. He is currently in isolation in Liberia, Mr. Johnson said.

“He is one of the bravest persons and the best Christian I've ever known,” Dr. Culley said. “It's not rational; it's a calling. It's a giving up of self to serve others.”

Dr. Culley said he heard about Dr. Sacra's illness around 2 p.m. Tuesday.

“I was devastated,” he said. “I was not surprised. I half-expected it. But it's a serious emotional blow.”

Calling Dr. Sacra the closest a person could be to a saint, Dr. Culley said, “He was needed there and he knew he was going to be in danger.”

Frances M. Anthes, president/CEO of Family Health Center, said: “I knew he was going to dive in (to the crisis). He would put the patient first. It was very much a Rick Sacra response.”

Ms. Anthes described Dr. Sacra as “a doctor's doc and a patient's doc.”

She said that Dr. Sacra had worked with Family Health Center since 1992, interspersing stretches in Worcester with time in Liberia.

The family physician, who also helped establish the health center's practice in Southbridge, is “a very warm, very humorous, very human, human being,” she said.

Patients of Dr. Sacra's Worcester practice were calling the center Wednesday to ask about him and offer their thoughts and prayers.

“I've heard he's in good spirits,” Ms. Anthes said.

Dr. Sacra was very much committed to providing top quality medical care to anyone who needed it, Ms. Anthes said, whether delivering babies or caring for older adults as well as families in Worcester or in Africa.

Family Health Center serves a diverse population, with 37 different languages spoken, some of which are from African countries.

“Not everybody makes the connection that Rick did between his work in Liberia and his work in Worcester,” Ms. Anthes said, “but he does.”

She added that the Ebola virus has a lifespan from a couple of days to three weeks, and nobody in the Worcester practice was exposed.

At the Sacra family home on Chestnut Hill Road in Holden Wednesday afternoon, police officers kept watch on news crews.

Mark Johnson, a friend of the family who has known Dr. Sacra for 30 years, read a prepared statement from the doctor's wife, Deborah.

“Thank you for your concern about Dr. Sacra,” the statement read. “As his wife, I am, of course, concerned about Rick's situation.”

Dr. Sacra began experiencing a fever on Friday and isolated himself, according to the statement. Dr. Sacra and his wife were in contact through the weekend until his test on Monday showed that he had contracted Ebola virus disease.

Dr. Sacra was admitted to the Ebola case management center associated with the hospital where he has served for 15 years.

“While Rick is in this phase of the sickness, I am not going to make myself available for interviews,” Mrs. Sacra said in her statement. “I am surrounded by friends and family and the body of Christ who are a great encouragement and who are praying fervently for Rick's recovery along with me. We are trusting in God to be with Rick and through this difficult circumstance.

“Rick would want me to urge you to remember that there are many people in Liberia who are suffering in this epidemic and others who are not receiving standard health care because clinics and hospitals have been forced to close,” the statement continues. “West Africa is on the verge of a humanitarian crisis and the world needs to respond compassionately and generously.”

Dr. Virginia Van Duyne, MD, assistant professor of Family Medicine & Community Health, has a professional and a personal connection with Dr. Sacra that goes back to her being an adolescent.

“I used to babysit his oldest son when he was a toddler; now, he's in college,” Dr. Van Duyne said. “I've known his family for a long time.”

Struggling to hold back tears, Dr. Van Duyne said Dr. Sacra has been a mentor to her as a medical student and in life and she credited him for the doctor she is today. She recounted how the two worked alongside each other for two months at an ELWA (Eternal Love Winning Africa) hospital in Liberia and praised him for his physical exam skills, bedside manner and his “eye for the unusual and figuring out what a diagnosis is.”

“He (Dr. Sacra) has incredible skills as a physician,” Dr. Van Duyne said. “At the bedside with patients, he shows them love no matter what stage they are and is accepting.”

Dr. Van Duyne said Dr. Sacra has a heart for Liberia and, for most of his medical career, has spent time there.

“Recently, as we were saying goodbye to our graduating residents from Family Health Center, I was talking to him about the crisis of Ebola going on in Liberia and West Africa and he shared with me his suffering about how the people there suffer so much already and now they're suffering even more now under this crisis,” Dr. Van Duyne said. “Even then, he was trying to get more people to be involved and send more resources and get the message out that there are things we can do. He really believes that one person can make a difference and he's shown that in the way he's living his life.”

While she confessed that she is “scared” and “sad” for Dr. Sacra since hearing the news, Dr. Van Duyne said she is also trusting that he's in good care and she is “hopeful” that he will recover. She said she knows Dr. Sacra takes every precaution beforehand and is very careful.

Dr. Warren Ferguson,MD, professor of Family Medicine & Community Health, described Dr. Sacra as a gifted physician who is very unassuming and humble.

“He (Dr. Sacra) is the consummate family physician,” Dr. Ferguson said. “Not only is he incredibly bright, incredibly skilled with his hands, able to perform a number of surgical procedures but is also just a wonderful human being who is committed not only to his passion around missionary work but also in his spiritual life. He is incredibly devoted to combining spirituality with medicine.”

Dr. Ferguson said Dr. Sacra, in an email, used the analogy of a forest fire “burning out of control” to describe the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Deanne Weissflog, who lives across the street from the Sacras, said Dr. Sacra and his wife usually do missionary work in Liberia together. In the lobby of their church, Holden Chapel, is a picture of the couple, recognizing their missionary work.

“I didn't realize he went back. I know he wanted to because it has been so vicious. I know he had gone over earlier in the year with six suitcases of medicine,” Ms. Weissflog said. “How much better a person can you be than to be a family man, to be a physician and to be religious and to take all that to an impoverished country so he could help?”

Mr. Johnson, in a statement on the SIM website, said, “My heart was deeply saddened, but my faith was not shaken, when I learned another of our missionary doctors contracted Ebola. As a global mission, we are surrounding our missionary with prayer, as well as our Liberian SIM/ELWA colleagues, who continue fighting the Ebola epidemic in Liberia. We have gifted Liberian doctors, medical staff and support staff who are carrying on the fight.”

The virus that has killed more than 1,500 people in West Africa is spread by direct contact with blood or bodily fluids, not through casual contact.

Dr. Sacra has been writing about his work in Liberia in a blog, last updated Aug. 30.

Mike Elfland of the Telegram & Gazette staff contributed to this report. Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.